< Fats Domino / Bo Diddley > Born on October 18, 1926, son of a deacon father and a school-teacher mother, Chuck Berry grew up in a hard-working middle-class household. His mother, a skilled piano player, passes on her love of music to her son, but soon he moves away...

< Fishbone / Fats Domino > Robert Johnson and the Devil It’s midnight; two lonely dirt roads cross near the Dockery Plantation in rural Mississippi. It’s there that a young man with a guitar waits. He wants to strike a deal, his soul for great talent. The Faustian legend goes...

< Vernon Reid / Robert Johnson > Grab a bag, add ska, punk, rock, funk, reggae, metal, hip-hop, country, social commentary, humor, mohawks, dreds, and unlimited energy, now shake it up. When well-mixed, pour it on a stage and you have arguably the best live band ever. You have Fishbone...

< Little Richard / Run-DMC > Death is a story of what was and what should have been. The Detroit based proto-punk band came before the founding fathers of punk music. They were ahead of such legends as the Ramones, Sex Pistols, and the Clash. They began five years before...

< Jimi Hendrix / Death > Heavy mascara and an androgynous sexual appeal, he bangs the piano with his groundbreaking style. His songs delivered with a powerful whooping voice. He is the legend, Little Richard. However, before fame, he was born Richard Wayne Penniman in Macon, Georgia. Influenced by two...

< Funkadelic / Little Richard > Jimi Hendrix may be the best-known artist on our list. He is arguably the greatest electric guitar player of all time. Born left-handed, Jimi would play a right-handed Fender Stratocaster upside down. Before Jimi, other artists unsuccessfully experimented with feedback and distortion. Hendrix...

< Rosetta Tharpe / Jimi Hendrix > The lineage of Funkadelic began in the fifties when George Clinton and four Jersey friends create a doo-wop soul group called the Parliaments. The 1960s see them record for various small labels while George is commuting to Detroit to work with Motown. In...

< Introduction / Funkadelic > Sister Rosetta Tharpe is one of the most influential artists in the development of rock and roll. Sadly, she may not be a household name, but she is one of the original creators of the rock and roll sound. Known as the “Godmother of Rock...

Rosetta Tharpe > When looking back at the history of rock ‘n’ roll, you may find it strange that music once created and inspired by black artists is now primarily for and by whites. There are black artists associated with the music throughout the decades. They play rock and roll despite...